Tape players in general are operative in several different modes such as forward play, reverse play, fast-forwarding, rewinding, etc. In these modes, a related member or element is driven by a power mechanism to perform a shift operation and is held by a lock mechanism in the shift position.
When a tape player is changed from one mode to another, its lock mechanism must be released, and therefore the tape player must include means for releasing the lock mechanism. Conventional proposals for such purposes are the use of another power mechanism for releasing the lock mechanism or the use of an electromagnetic solenoid in most usual cases.
In such releasing means using a solenoid called "suction tape solenoid" powerful enough to bring an attracted member thereto from a distant position by its own attraction force, a mode member is shifted and held in its shift position upon energization of the solenoid and is released upon deenergization of the solenoid. A merit of the suction type solenoid is that the shift operation, locking in the shifted position and unlocking are effected by a single member.
The suction type solenoid, however, is large-scaled relative to the magnitude of its electromagnetic force and this has been an obstacle to progress scale reduction of a tape player. In this respect, there is another proposal of using a small-scaled solenoid called attraction type solenoid, which merely has an attracting force large enough to hold an attracted member brought thereto by another mechanism. That is, a shift operation with a large operation load is mechanically effected by a power mechanism, and the attraction type solenoid is used for locking the moved member in the moved position and unlocking it therefrom.
The conventional arrangements, however, involve the following problems.
Since the attraction type electromagnetic solenoid has a small electromagnetic force, independent shift means is required for reciprocating a mode member unlike the suction type solenoid, and this complicates the entire arrangement.
When using an electromagnetic solenoid as a power mechanism, a high cost of the electromagnetic solenoid itself, either of the suction type or the attraction type, increases the manufacturing cost of the type player.